03-12-2011
01:16 AM
5 Loves
Been a loyal customer for a long while. I have a business and personal SWA Visa card. I have personally persuaded a lot of friends to become SWA fans. But that's all gone. Something serious has changed at SWA HQ. First, about half of the website was redesigned maybe a year ago. I did not like the change, it madet things more confusing. Then I noticed for the first time SWA fares were often higher than legacy airlines. On a ski trip from SAN to DEN, I took Frontier and it was very nice and half the price of SWA. Trying to book my RR credits became more difficult. I also fly SAN to LAS and usually book 30 days in advance. I started noticing all sorts of strategic pricing; my usual 8am flight that used to be $59 was now $139 one way. Last week i went to book a flight 30days in advance from SAN to LAS and the quoted price was $179 one way! I noticed also that prices were literally creeping up $10-20/day on some flights. Then, of course, the pathetic change to this new RR program. I have little to add to all the other complaints on this blog and especially on the SWA Facebook page other than to say it is absolutely a joke. In the past I have trusted SWA as one of the very few companies that could be trusted, even told my kids that. Boy was I wrong. It seems like the pro customer culture has just evaporated overnight, it really is amazing in a bad way. So for me, I will use what I have left in the program and SWA becomes like all the other airlines, just another choice. The only thing left that i like is the ability to cancel and change tickets easily without heavy fees. So, SWA, if you really want to be like all the others, that's the only thing left, start charging those $150-175 change fees, your revenue will go up and you'll be indistinguishable from all the rest. Adios!
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I am so underwhelmed. I have always loved Southwest but it seems like you folks are on a path to self destruction. I don't like the revamp of the site, it's poor. The excellent RR program now resembles something from the legacy airlines. Couldn't log on for a few days. We are going on a family vacation in June. Logged onto to check the reservations; oops, they aren't there. Mine are and my son with my names are there but my other son and wife's reservations have disappeared, where did they go? So I tried to call; oops "17-26 minutes" for the next operator. Then I called again and this time pressed the option that allegedly was going to give me "expedited service for RR members". Oops, the wait was even longer for the RR members, 18-27 minutes. Remember when you were put on hold but got to listen to the goofy, funny folksy recordings? no longer, just the usual "your call may be recorded". And most of all, the fares resemble those other airlines I swore I would never fly and that I am now going to check out again; for example, I looked 30 days in advance for a short midweek flight from San Diego to Las Vegas and the ONE WAY fare for a 42 minute flight was $173. That's a $346 round trip flight with more than 21 day advance notice. Let's also talk about the RR program, it is a model of non simplicity if I ever saw it. I have both personal and corporate Southwest Visa credit cards and from what I can tell, they have just become useless. Sure, I will grant you, the program was probably too good before, but that sure has been fixed...
Really, I can't tell you how many folks I have turned onto SWA over the years. And they are asking me what I think of the changes. I am trying to keep an open mind but my gut instinct tells me there has been some sort of regime change in the higher echelons of SWA and it's becoming obvious. We shall see where it all goes...as for me, I just became a free agent and it's sad.
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